Saturday, 18 May 2002

Roulette A & B, Raimondo Cortese, May 18, 2002

Roulette
A by Raimondo Cortese

Ranters
Theatre at Chapel off Chapel, May
18 untilJune 1, 2002

Reviewer:
Kate Herbert

Roulette,
a collection of plays by Raimondo Cortese and Ranters Theatre, is a movable
feast that reappears regularly with variations. It changes venues, cities, even
the number of the plays in the program alters each time.It is always a compelling evening.

This
round at Chapel off Chapel, includes eight plays in two programs. Program A
comprises four two-handers: Legacy, Night, Fortune and Sickness. The acting,
writing and direction are intelligent and skilful.

The stage bears only a few chairs and props in an empty space. The actors and
the dialogue are at the heart of the work.

Directors,
Adriano Cortese and Bob Daoud, keep action simple and focus intently on
relationships. Pacing is impeccable and the direction serves the text superbly.
These are not 'look at me' directors.

Each play
is an intense dialogue between two people who are strangers or acquaintances.
The characters are ordinary people in unusual circumstances.

The
meetings between pairs seem, at first, unremarkable. Each play hasa positive and a negative character and
we are fascinated with the dynamic of the relationship and conversations.

Legacy
(Beth Buchanan, Tony Nickolakopoulos) is set on a street corner. A young woman
sells skin care products while a construction worker has his lunch break.

The woman
is dislikable but Cortese makes her vulnerable. Nickolakopoulos is exceptional
as the worker. His warmth and positivity is contagious and his natural charm
draws the audience into his engagement with the frightened, angry young woman.

In Night,
set in a club, Kelly Tracey is
almost teeth-jarringly wired as the young woman out to get drunk. Her meeting
with a stranger, a dental nurse (Kristina Bidenko) becomes a drunken rave
ending in a brief burst of passion. Tracey's fragile drunk is sympathetic and
Bidenko is tragic in her quest for nightly obliteration

In Fortune
Torquil Neilson and Nickolakopoulos unravel a mysterious relationship. A
prodigal son returns after his mother's death to claim her house after a ten
year absence. He and his mother's partner play a status game which finds the
son weilding all the power.

In
Sickness, a dying patient, played passionately by Robert Morgan, is visited by
a priest (Paul Lum) whose attempts to cheer the patient are in vain. The
rage, deception of Morgan's character and the awful ordinariness of his life and
death are the tragedy here.

These
four plays are a delight to see.

Roulette
A and B alternate nights.

By Kate
Herbert

Roulette
B by Raimondo Cortese

Ranters Theatre at Chapel off Chapel until June 1, 2002

Reviewer:
Kate Herbert

Program B
of Roulette by Raimondo Cortese is no disappointment. Like Program A, it
comprises four short plays and each is a gem. As a group, they provide a
landscape of seemingly simple characters.

What we
observe ordinary people being strangely intricate creatures with bizarre
traits, surprising behaviours and delusions, miscommunications and resentments
that torment them.

The
acting is stylish and restrained. As in Program A directors for the plays, Adriano Corteseand Bob Daoud, keep the stage almost empty. Actors walk on in full light
with no dramatic fade up nor a black out to signal the end.

The
pieces stop at their logical point. Actors pause then leave the stage or take a
bow. The focus always remains on character, dialogue and script.

We are
not overwhelmed with technology that is currently consuming much of our
theatre.

Raimondo
Cortese's writing is delightful. Each character is a hive of buzzing
idiosyncrasies. They speak like mad birds, pecking at each other. They pull
ideas and memories from the backs of their brains, surprising us with
non-sequiturs.

Petroleum
is a cunningly wrought meeting between two men. YoungGordon (Torquil Neilson) tinkers with a lawn mower in a
country garage. Another man (Robert Morgan ) awaits the mechanic to fix his car
after it hit a wallaby.

The two
begin civilly but the customer is wired and ready to pop at the slightest
provocation. Cortese cleverly unfolds their stories in fits and bursts. The
relationship rushes to its conclusion.

In
Inconsolable, Tom (Paul Lum) is
interrupted table by dizzy Kat at his café table. (Heather Bolton) Although
they are strangers, they travel an entire relationship in one conversation.
They meet, flirt, tease, annoy, bicker and separate without ever being
intimate.

In Hotel a hardened, foul-mouthed hotel cleaner
(Kristina Bidenko)advises to her
younger counterpart. (Beth Buchanan)What begins as mateship and a union against the bosses, ends as a
violent, abusive and saddening outburst.

Borneo is set on an international flight.
Angelica (Bolton) reveals more than she should to younger sillier Sal. (Kelly
Tracey) The ending shows how little one can trust a stranger.